I was recently asked about my six rules for doing a PhD – which happens from time to time – probably because I mention that I have a set of six rules for doing a PhD from time to time…
Anyway I wrote them down some time past on www.korner.org.au and they seem to have disappeared… so here they are thanks to the timelooker backwardstube – archive.org
My 6 rules for doing a PhD…
1) don’t do it.
2) don’t do it.
3) don’t do it.
4) don’t do it.
5) don’t do it.
6) don’t do it.
OK. if you really want to know, don’t do it…
1) unless you really really really really really really want to.
Academia is a strange beast, feircely competitive, not much actual research, no money and usually you don’t get to choose what you research. So saving the world is usually not on the cards. Getting noticed is a vague possibility, but you’d do better on a game show.
2) You have a super-fantastic supervisor.
Make that 2 really super fantastic supervisors. In 2 subject areas. That way when one leaves for a better position elsewhere (because why would they stick around anywhere near here if they were any good) you will still have one good supervisor. Also try and get them to have different areas of expertise. This way a) they can’t disagree with eachother much, and 2) you have to learn each of their areas good enough to explain it to the other. You will therefore learn both areas and do well. Also if you are looking at something that covers two disciplines you’ll probably be doing something interesting…
3) DO NOT give up your life to do it.
Make sure you have things other than the PhD to do. Give up the PhD before you give up the hobbies.
4) DO NOT do the PhD in the same country as your undergrad.
Even the same state is bad. The same uni is asking for trouble. The whole point of the PhD is to grow. Familiarity breeds contempt. Besides, it should be hard.
5) The subject is so clearly an award winning idea it make you sit up at night wondering how no one else saw it before.
Odds on they have… this means that at the last 3 weeks before subittion you will find 5 years of papers in an obscure Finnish publication a) refuting your work and/or b) giving exactly the same experiments in greater detail, etc. The alternative is something so boring people’s eyes will glaze over upon recieving an email with your CV in it… without even turning on their computer. If it truely is a new idea work hard and fast because it won’t stay new for long… Most cutting edge research seems to be discovered simultaneously at two or three different places around the world.
6) join a research group.
Make sure you have collegues working on similar things. share results with collegues, go to as many
conferences as you can. Network. Email friends OS. Be active in your community, whatever form that takes. Then it does not matter if you ever complete.
OK. if at the end of all that you still want to do it, good luck. now read phillip greenspun’s Career guide for PhD’s